It is safe to assume the so-called governing body will not be best pleased with Player's contribution yesterday to the debate on "men only" golf clubs, in particular Muirfield, which the R&A recently announced as the venue for the 2013 Open.

"One thing travel has taught me is to have respect for other people's point of view but I have to tell you, I do not agree with (the policy].

"Golf would not be the game it is without women. Winston Churchill said that change is the price of survival. I agree with that. I just don't see the point of excluding any member of society."

"That policy is their business. It's a decision they've made and they've got to live with it.

"I have designed many golf courses all over the world and I wouldn't like to think any of them would exclude women."

As it so happens Player will be visiting Muirfield at the start of next week to host a corporate day. It should be an interesting moment when he pops into the club secretary's office to say a quick hello.

Incidentally, the idea of Gary Player decrying a golf club, or indeed any organisation, for its exclusionary policies will be dismissed as rank hypocrisy by those who remember, or have read about, his support for South Africa's apartheid regime (see this devastating column by the Guardian's George Monbiot, in which he quotes Player's 1966 book Grand Slam Golf). What Player wrote back then was absolutely unforgivable. But, for what it is worth, he has spent a long time apologising for his past conduct and having heard him speak on the subject a couple of times I can ony say that he seemed sincere.